Date: October 2, 2017

When I read about PBS losing funding, it irritates me because as a father of two I have seen how effective their programming is at being entertaining and educational. It doesn’t just stop at their TV programming, though; their website is unmatched when it comes to fun and education. Writing is a process. It is not a simple set of steps into which one can just plug information. Simply teaching the steps of the writing process is worthless. Memorizing the order of steps does no good. It is important to implement them and practice. The students need to see how these steps are useful and will help them. The writing process can be taught by modeling it for the students. That way they could see exactly how it works. While teaching the writing process, it would be an ideal time to teach the mechanics of writing. Lessons about grammar and writing mechanics cannot be taught as individual entities. They must be used in conjunction with the rest of the curriculum. Grammar and writing mechanics need to be integrated into the general curriculum and not taught as separate units.